Coffee Professional Terminology

Flavor

The overall impression of aroma, acidity and body - a word for the total experience of a coffee.

Acidity

A sharp, intense quality found in all coffees grown at high altitudes. The acidity referred to here is different from bitterness or sourness and has nothing to do with pH value. It is a fresh, lively quality that lets coffee act as a mental stimulant and a palate cleanser.

Body

The mouthfeel that remains on the tongue after drinking prepared coffee. Body can range from light as water to thin, medium, high, buttery, and even as thick as syrup in some Indonesian coffees.

Aroma

Aroma refers to the fragrance and scent given off by coffee after preparation. Bouquet is a less commonly used term, referring specifically to the smell of ground coffee. Aroma typically has specific characteristics and is comprehensive. Words used to describe it include: caramel, roasted, chocolate, fruity, grassy, malty, rich, full-bodied, spicy, and so on.

Bitter

Bitterness is a basic taste sensation, with the sensory area at the back of the tongue. The bitterness in a dark roast is created deliberately, but the most common cause of bitterness is using too much coffee with too little water. Bitterness is not synonymous with sourness.

Bland

Coffees grown in the lowlands typically have quite light, tasteless profiles. Coffee made with too little coffee and too much water produces the same washed-out effect.

Briny

If brewed coffee is overheated, it can develop a salty taste. Some coffee-shop coffees have this profile.

Earthy

Usually used to describe Indonesian coffees that are spicy and have earthy aromas. The earthiness referred to here is not the taste of beans contaminated with soil. Some commercial coffees are blended with cheap varieties, and there the earthy taste may turn dirty - clearly the result of crude processing techniques such as spreading beans on the ground to dry.

Exotic

Describes coffee with a unique aroma and special characteristics, such as sweet qualities of flowers, fruits and spices. Coffees from East Africa and Indonesia typically have this characteristic.

Mellow

An adjective used to describe coffee with low to medium acidity and good balance.

Mild

Indicates that a coffee has harmonious, delicate flavors. High-altitude Latin American coffees are typically described as mild in texture. It is also a term in the coffee industry for all high-altitude coffees except those from Brazil.

Soft

Describes low-acidity coffees such as Indonesian coffee; can also be described as mellow or sweet.

Sour

A taste sensation located mainly at the back sides of the tongue, characteristic of light-roast coffees.

Spicy

Refers to a flavor or aroma reminiscent of specific spices. Certain high-altitude Indonesian coffees (especially aged coffees) carry sweet aromas reminiscent of cardamom.

Strong

Technically, it describes the abundance of various taste advantages and disadvantages, or the relative ratio of coffee to water in a particular preparation. In common usage, strong describes the intense flavor of dark-roast coffee. It also misleads people into assuming a high caffeine content. In fact, high caffeine levels are found in canned mild coffees, because they contain more decaffeinated coffee.

Sweet

A commonly used adjective that is essentially almost fruity and also related to wine-like flavors. Coffees grown in the Costa Rican highlands typically carry spiced flavors.

Wild

Describes coffee with extreme taste characteristics. If most people cannot accept it, they would call it strange, but it can also be an attractive feature, depending on personal preference.

Winy

Describes a fascinating flavor reminiscent of wine - the special contrasting flavor created by fruity acidity and a smooth body. Kenyan coffee is the best example of a coffee with wine-like flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you want to taste these terms rather than read them, Indonesian coffee is one of the most instructive places to start. FrontStreet Coffee's Mandheling is the reference point for earthy and spicy: the beans come from the Toba Lake area of the Lintong region in Sumatra and are processed with the local wet-hulled method, in which the parchment is stripped while the beans are still half-dry and half-wet, leaving them exposed to the air as they dry. That is where the characteristic herbal and spice notes come from. FrontStreet Coffee roasts it medium-dark, so the cup is low in acidity but full-bodied, with caramel, dark chocolate and toast and a long, sweet finish.

For the top of the category, FrontStreet Coffee's PWN Golden Mandheling is the benchmark. PWN selects only specialty-grade Mandheling, applying strict standards on density, screen size, shape and color, rejecting defects by machine and then by hand. The result is beans that are complete, even, large and translucent, with less of Mandheling's muddy and grassy edge. Freshly roasted, it brews into notes of agarwood, herbs, spice, roasted hazelnut, caramel and dark chocolate, with a clean, rich and layered cup - a good illustration of body and mellow in the same glass.

Strong, in the everyday sense, belongs to espresso - and Mandheling has long been a fixture there. FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Blend builds on the same idea: Mandheling is combined with Brazil and a small amount of Robusta and taken to a deep roast, pushing the dark chocolate, nut and caramel notes to the front. The Mandheling raises the overall body and adds agarwood, herbal and spice notes, while the Robusta heightens the crema. It pulls easily into a rich shot, and it holds up in a latte or as the base of a layered Dirty.

Read together, these three coffees map the vocabulary neatly: Mandheling for earthy and spicy, Golden Mandheling for mellow and body, and the Classic Blend for strong. Try them side by side and the terms stop being abstractions.